The Roswell Report: Fact vs. Fiction in the New Mexico Desert

of documents concerning a variety of events, including aircraft crashes, errant missile tests, and nuclear mishaps.

The researchers reported to the Administrative Assistant to the Secretary of the Air Force (SAF/AA), the office responsible for both Air Force records and security policy oversight. Within SAF/AA, the tasking fell to the Director of Security and Special Program Oversight and its specialized subunit, the Declassification and Review Team. This team, comprised entirely of Reservists, was well versed in the Air Force's records system and its complex declassification procedures. Previously, Declassification and Review Team members demonstrated their expertise and effectiveness by declassifying millions of pages of Southeast Asian War and Prisoner of War-Missing in Action records.

As this study makes abundantly clear, the Declassification and Review Team found no evidence of any extraterrestrial craft or alien flight crew. In fact, what they did find had been declassified for more than twenty years—a shadowy, formerly Top Secret project, code-named MOGUL.

Project MOGUL resulted from two important post-World War II priorities set by the Commanding General of the Army Air Forces, Henry H. "Hap" Arnold. These were to continue the cooperative wartime relationship between civilian research institutions and the military, and to maintain America's technological superiority, especially with respect to guarding against a bolt from the blue—in other words, a devastating surprise attack. MOGUL addressed both of these concerns. Developed partly under contract with leading scientific institutions—such as New York University (NYU), Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Columbia University, and the University of California at Los Angeles—MOGUL's objective was to develop a long-range system capable of detecting Soviet nuclear detonations and ballistic missile launches.

Army Air Forces officials assembled an expert group of military and civilian scientists to carry out the project. The group included Dr. W. Maurice Ewing of Columbia University, a preeminent geophysicist and oceanographer; Dr. Athelstan F. Spilhaus, the Director of Research at NYU who later advised five presidents on scientific and cultural matters; Dr. James Peoples, the Air Force's civilian project scientist and later editor of the Journal of Geophysical Research; Albert P. Crary, also a civilian Air Force scientist, known for significant contributions to Antarctic research; and Charles B. Moore, Project Engineer at NYU and an atmospheric physicist who pioneered the use of giant plastic research balloons still widely used today. Col. Marcellus Duffy, a respected Air Force pilot and scientific administrator, led the project. Capt. Albert C. Trakowski, a young Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate, followed Duffy in the leadership role.

Determining whether the Soviets were testing nuclear devices was of the highest national priority; it demanded the utmost secrecy if the information gained was to be useful. When the Soviets exploded their first atomic device in August 1949, the experimental Project MOGUL was not in operation. However, the explosion was detected by a specially equipped Air Force B-29 aircraft. Accordingly, MOGUL was conducted under stringent security—secluded laboratories, code words, maximum security clearances, and strictest enforcement of need-to-know rules. Nevertheless, while the nature of the project remained